BMW is reportedly axing the XM, the 8 Series and the i4 to fund its electric future
The oddballs and the slow sellers are being quietly shown the door
Every carmaker eventually reaches the point where it has too many models and not enough money to do them all justice. BMW appears to have reached it. As it pours resources into its all-important Neue Klasse platform, the brand is reportedly clearing out the corners of its range, and some genuinely distinctive cars are on the list. Not all of them will be missed. One or two really will be.
What is going, and why
The clearest casualty is the 8 Series. Production of BMW's big, elegant coupe and Gran Coupe has already ended, with no direct successor planned; it was built on the older 5 Series platform and simply ran its course. The divisive XM, BMW's controversial plug-in hybrid super-SUV, is reportedly set to end production in 2028, and it is easy to see why: it sold just 7,608 units globally last year and 2,816 in the first half of 2026, tiny numbers in a range that already includes the X5, X6, X7 and iX. An electric replacement, an iXM, has been mentioned to carry the badge onward.
Two more familiar names are said to be on the way out. The i4, BMW's electric four-door coupe, is being wound down as the new, Neue-Klasse-based i3 takes over that part of the range, with dealers already discounting final orders. And the 2 Series Active Tourer, BMW's only real compact people-carrier and a quiet favourite among families and older buyers for its easy access, is reportedly being phased out as well.
It is about the Neue Klasse
The thread tying all this together is money and focus. BMW is in the middle of the most important launch in its recent history, the Neue Klasse family of electric cars, and that transition is enormously expensive. Trimming slow-selling and ageing models frees up cash and engineering time, and the plan is reportedly to concentrate the future range on fewer than 40 models overall. It is worth stressing that this comes from an Automotive News Europe report rather than an official BMW announcement, so exact timings could shift.
AutoNext Take
Most of this is simply good housekeeping. The XM was a car few people wanted and fewer people loved, a misjudged flex that never suited BMW, and axing it is no loss at all. The 8 Series bowing out quietly is a shame aesthetically, because it was one of the prettier things BMW has made in years, but it sold in tiny numbers and its platform was past its prime. Pruning a bloated range to pour everything into the Neue Klasse is exactly the disciplined call a company facing a costly transition should make.
The one that stings is the little Active Tourer. It is deeply unfashionable to care about a compact MPV, but it did something almost nothing else in BMW's range does: it offered normal families and older drivers a genuinely practical, easy-to-live-with car with a premium badge. Losing it, while the line-up fills up with ever more crossovers and coupe-SUVs, is a small sign of how narrow premium choice is becoming. As reports go this one mostly makes sense, but the sensible cars are always the first to be sacrificed, and that is worth a quiet grumble even when the strategy is right.
